003: Welcome Baaa-ck (and other lamb puns)
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food for thought | why do things taste gamey?
recipe | Lamb chops so good, we started liking olives and feta
restaurant | a hot pot restaurant featuring lamb
bites | Los Angeles Food & Activity Guide • I love the Corn Kid!
food for thought
why do things taste gamey?
A few weeks ago, James and I were eating lamb at dinner. He realized midmeal that he had already had lamb today, telling me about how he had ordered it at Souvla for lunch—"Well, actually, it's not lamb. It was called Black Sheep? I'm not sure what the difference between sheep and lamb is, actually, maybe the age of it? But it tasted really good. Everyone was like, wow, the sheep tastes better than the lamb!"
I had to drop the bomb: "Did you know that it's vegan meat?" Cue incredulous looks, panicked Slack messages, and responses of disbelief. I was mostly impressed that vegan meat had actually gotten delicious enough to fool a throng of carnivores. "But, but..." he said, "It tasted so gamey!
What is it about a gamey flavor that makes us equate it with "real" meat? I looked up Souvla's vendor, local startup Black Sheep Foods. When I looked up their website, I wasn't surprised to find that they have a proprietary blend of flavors that they use.
Still, interest piqued, I decided to do some light research to understand what exactly it is that produces a "gamey" taste.
According to various sources on the internet:
Gamey or meaty flavors are aromas that come from compounds in the skin and fat of an animal—therefore, slow-twitch muscle fibers (thighs, briskets, ribeyes—dark meat) taste more meaty than fast-twitch muscle fibers (breast, white meat).
Lamb, in particular, has the highest amount of branched-chain fatty acids (BCFAS) in its fat, produced by its rumen (the 1st of its stomachs).
They also develop from compounds in the diet the animals are on—for example, indoles like skatole and androstenone are compounds that develop typically when animals consume grass (and not corn) and when boars, specifically, go through puberty. (This also makes sense why a lot of people don't like gamey tastes—skatole is also the compound responsible for making poop smell like 💩!)
Processes like hanging the meat and aging it over time also produces more flavor, as it allows 1/ gravity 2/ enzymes and 3/ bacteria to break down more of the muscle, creating flavors and tenderizing it in the process as well. Maybe this is why aged steak tastes so delicious!
There's still enough of a mystery where food scientists haven't been able to create the perfect mix of flavors to imitate real meat, but it makes sense as vegetable fats are never going to be a perfect substitute for animal fats. Still, with the advent of cell-grown chicken and fish along with the research done on flavor compounds, it's cool to know that we're getting closer to a future where we can start to lessen the environmental impacts of the meat and dairy industries without sacrificing any of the deliciousness meat provides.
recipe
lamb chops so good, we started liking olives and feta
Because we were overzealous and bought lamb loin chops from Costco (they were delicious... there's just, SO many because it's Costco 😳) we ended up making this dish twice in the past few weeks. With that being said, it's delicious enough to have a regular spot in our weeknight dinner rotations, so here's a recipe so you can make it yourself too. The most impactful ingredient here actually isn't the lamb, but the tomatoes—so make sure you buy really delicious ones (heirlooms, if you can).
Interested? Here's a link to the recipe.
restaurant
DNM Hot Pot
James's second favorite food is hot pot and as a result, we've tried and have been disappointed by many a hot pot restaurant in the Bay. He always lamented that his favorite place closed during the pandemic... and then celebrated when I told him that I think they recently reopened!
DNM Hot Pot is an authentic Inner Mongolian restaurant (that's literally what DNM's Chinese characters spell out). Come here if you REALLY love lamb—that's the star of the show. Their house special broths come with meat and toppings inside, but we also enjoyed the wide variety of à la carte ingredients, housemade sauces (including Middle Eastern green sauce??), and cold dishes (especially the oatmeal noodles).
Pique your interest? Here's a link to the restaurant page I wrote for it.
bites
LA Food and Activity Guide
I'm headed to LA this weekend, so I put together some options and a sample itinerary in a Notion Doc for the group of friends we're going with—complete with restaurant and activity recommendations.
James suggested I turn our doc into a blog post, so I did! If you, too, like visuals when planning, the blog post contains a link to a template of the Notion doc that you can also use... Kanban board and all... 😅
i can’t imagine a more beautiful thing
So I stumbled upon Recess Therapy's original clip of Corn Kid a few weeks ago and thought his interview was the cutest thing ever. At first, I was worried this meant that I was getting baby fever (dw, I'm not) but it turns out that everyone loves him: Tariq the Corn Kid went viral with over 21M views of his enthusiastic interview.
Better yet, someone on TikTok decided to remix his interview into an actual song, that is ridiculously catchy (🎵 It has the juiceee 🎵 It has the juice!) and is now ubiquitous. Now Corn Kid is also the song of the summer, with a Cameo and all. There are even articles about the phenomenon. Go, Corn Kid! 🌽
Wendynoms is an independent newsletter that provides you with 1 restaurant recommendation, 1 recipe, and (at least) 1 fun link or food for thought every week, so that you will always have something to eat and chat about while eating. Please send questions to hello@wendynoms.com. Happy reading and happy eating!